civil religion

From Jim West's blog:

Athletics in our society is a religion. Making Christianity complicit in the practice of that religion at the expense of ethics is not something that should happen.

<idle musing>
Amen! Good preaching!
</idle musing>

Liminality...

Huh? For those of you who don't know, liminality is the point of change; you aren't quite what you were—but you're not quite what you are becoming (poor definition, but it gives you the idea). Anyway:

“Liminality is pure potency, where anything can happen, where immoderacy is normal, even normative, and where the elements of culture and society are released from their customary configurations and recombined in bizarre and terrifying imagery”—V. Turner, ‘Myth and Symbol’, in D.L. Sills (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, cited in Earle, Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, page 37

<idle musing>
Which is why society is always so careful to create rituals for changes—for example, the swearing in of new government officials. It is a liminal situation, so we are very careful to follow the rules, lest some chaos monster get loose.

Think about potential change, and most people get very nervous. Why? Because the liminality of the situation may allow a chaos monster to get in and devour them. It is all about control. It things stay the same, I have the illusion of control. If things change, it is a liminal situation and my normal rituals might not be effective.

Praise God that he is bigger than any liminal situation! I need not fear change because he has already been ahead of me and knows what the future may bring.
</idle musing>

Why the fuss?

I rarely comment on political issues, but this question from a Sri Lankan Christian needs a good answer (HT: Scot McKnight):

Most of us non-Americans are naturally nonplussed at the fury that Barak Obama’s health care reform bill has unleashed. It perplexes us that so many suburban American Christians who do not care one iota about a trillion-dollar military budget, and wax eloquently about being zealously ”pro-life”, are now indignant about their state spending public funds to make the poor Americans more equal to them when it comes to receiving medical treatment and enjoying good health! Please, could some Republican party Christian explain these anomalies to the rest of the Body of Christ around the world?

<idle musing>
I certainly can't answer it. I have always been amazed at the willingness of one end of the political spectrum to destroy people in the womb, and the willingness of the opposite end to destroy them once they are out of it. Of course, the one extreme does attempt to only destroy the ones who are opposed to "American interests," which only raises more questions in my mind...

Perhaps the answers are found in Genesis 3 and the encounter with the serpent?
</idle musing>

Reckoned

“It is not the 'righteousness' of Jesus Christ which is 'reckoned' to the believer. It is his death and resurrection. That is what Romans 6 is all about. Paul does not say, 'I am in Christ; Christ has obeyed the Torah; therefore God regards me as though I had obeyed the Torah.' He says: 'I am in Christ; Christ has died and been raised; therefore God regards me—and I must learn to regard myself—as someone who has died to sin and been raised to newness of life.'

“The answer he gives to the opening question of [Romans] chapter 6 is an answer about status. Jesus' death and resurrection is the great Passover (I Corinthians 5:7), the moment when, and the means by which, we are set free from the slavery of sin once and for all. The challenge to the believer—indeed, on might almost say the challenge of learning to believe at all—is to 'reckon' that this is true, that one has indeed left behind the state of slavery, that one really has come now to stand on resurrection ground (Romans 6:6-11). All that the supposed doctrine of the 'imputed righteousness of Christ' has to offer is offered instead by Paul under this rubric, on these terms and within this covenantal framework.”—Justification, pages 232-233

<idle musing>
Can I hear an “Amen!” from you? It is so much simpler than we try to make it sometimes. We died and rose in Christ. As Colossians 3 says:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Get that? We're dead, but raised, sitting with Christ—who is our life, mind you—on the right hand of God! If you can't get excited about that, then something must be wrong somewhere. That is the heart of the gospel; everything else is sundries.
</idle musing>

Cheese update

Well, we tried the Colby this weekend. I took a half-pound of it with me when I went to get Debbie. I think it aged at too warm a temperature, or for too long. It tastes good, but it doesn't taste mellow like Colby usually does. It has a bit of a bite to it, which I like. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone else thought it was good, too. We made short work of that half-pound.

It is somewhat difficult to get the paraffin off, though. It cracks and comes off in small pieces. I suspect that is why they use a special cheese wax, but I didn't want to spend too much money until I decided if it was worth the effort. I've decided it is :) So, I will probably be getting some nice red cheese wax some time soon.

The mozzarella that I made last Tuesday and turned into mozzarella sticks went over well, too. It isn't supposed to stay good for more than a few days, but I tried wrapping it in wax paper and then putting it in a Ziplock™ bag. It kept the cheese moist and good tasting. Debbie's eating the last one today, a week later. Not too bad...

So, on the whole, the cheese making experiment has been a success. I think I might try brick next. We can't buy it locally, but I snagged a pound of it in Wisconsin this weekend—actually Debbie's sister gave it to us. The recipe I found says to rub some existing brick cheese around the block of new cheese to transfer the bacteria linens to it. This is the bacteria that gives brick (and Limburger) its distinctive taste.

The problem of definitions

This is a wonderful word picture, and accurate, to boot! Wright is talking about the vocabulary for translating the Greek word πιστις (PISTIS):

This situation, frustrating and confusing to those without Greek and even to some who have it, is further complicated by the tendency for words, like bright three-year-olds, not to sit still where you told them to, but to wander around the room, start fiddling with things they weren't supposed to touch, form new friendships (especially when they bump into their Latin cousins, but that's another story) and generally enjoy themselves at the expense of the exegete who is trying to keep them under control.—Justification, page 89

<idle musing>
Isn't that a delightful word picture? I laughed out loud when I read it. Just think of that little 3 year-old, having a grand old time while the parents vainly try to contain the energy that only a 3 year-old has. Now, picture a theologian, trying to keep 2000 years of history of translation and interpretation within one English word. I can just see πιστις dancing around the room laughing at the manuscript the poor scholar is trying to write...
</idle musing>

Did Paul write it?

“In much Protestant scholarship of the last hundred or more years, Ephesians has regularly been deemed post-Pauline, and Colossians has frequently joined it in that 'deutero-Pauline' category. Like my teacher George Caird, and more other leading scholars than one might imagine from some of the mainstream literature, I have long regarded that judgment with suspicion, and the more I have read the other letters the more Ephesians and Colossians seem to me very thoroughly and completely Pauline. The problem is, of course, that within the liberal Protestantism that dominated New Testament scholarship for so many years Ephesians and Colossians were seen as dangerous to the point of unacceptability, not least because of their 'high' view of the church. There are, to be sure, questions of literary style. But with the Pauline corpus as small as it is—tiny by comparison, say, with the surviving works of Plato or Philo—it is very difficult to be sure that we can set up appropriate stylistic criteria to judge authenticity.”—Justification, page 43

<idle musing>
Very well put. Our inheritance from the Enlightenment blinds us to many obvious things, this being one of them...
</idle musing>

The economy and the Bible

I wonder what would happen to the US economy if we followed this set of laws in Deuteronomy:

Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the LORD’S remission has been proclaimed...If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,” and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the LORD against you, and you would incur guilt. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”—Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 7-11 NRSV

<idle musing>
If ever there was evidence that the Bible is a communist/socialist plot, this has got to be it!

Seriously, though, what part of share the wealth don't you understand?
</idle musing>

What's missing?

Jumping backwards, just because my bookmark was in the wrong spot, we go back to the beginning:

...the question is about the means of salvation, how it is accomplished. Here John Piper, and the tradition he represents, have said that salvation is accomplished by the sovereign grace of God, operating through the death of Jesus Christ in our place and on our behalf, and appropriated through faith alone. Absolutely. I agree a hundred percent. There is not one syllable of that summary that I would complain about. But there is something missing—or rather, someone missing. Where is the Holy Spirit?In some of the great Reformed theologians, not least John Calvin himself, the work of the Spirit is every bit as important as the work of the Son. But you can't simply add the Spirit on at the end of the equation and hope it will still have the same shape. Part of my plea in this book is for the Spirit's work to be taken seriously in relation both to Christian faith itself and to the way in which that faith is “active through love” (Galatians 5:6). and the way in which that Spirit-driven active faith, at work through love and all that flows from it, explain how God's final rescue of his people from death itself has been accomplished (Romans 8:1-11).—Justification, pages 10-11

<idle musing>
Yes! The work of the Holy Spirit is central to the Christian life, yet it is so often overlooked. It is all too common for people to get someone to acknowledge the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and then hand that someone a Bible and tell them to read it. As if that block of wood, thinly sliced, all by itself, will transform you! NO! It is only as the Holy Spirit quickens the words in that book that they have any power. It is always, yes, always, through the power of God, the Holy Spirit, that we are transformed—or, better yet, have been transformed.
</idle musing>

Justification

I recently finished reading Wright's Justification. I found it a good read, but Wright is a hard author to grab little quotes from, which is probably one reason he is misunderstood. Anyway, I did grab some that I will post over the next few days. Here's the first one:

Sin is what bubbles up unbidden from the depths of the human heart, so that all one has to do is go with the flow. That has the appearance of freedom, but is in fact slavery, as Jesus himself declared. True freedom is the gift of the Spirit, the result of grace; but, precisely because it is freedom for as well as freedom from, it isn't simply a matter of being forced now to be good, against our wills and without cooperation (what damage to genuine pastoral theology has been done by making a bogey-word out of the Pauline term synergism, “working together with God”), but a matter of being released from slavery precisely into responsibility, into being able at last to chose, to exercise moral muscle, knowing both that one is doing it oneself and that the Spirit is at work within, that God himself is doing that which I too am doing.—Justification, page 189

<idle musing>
Mind you, it is all by grace. Yes, you are enabled to respond, but you are responding. I like Bonhoeffer's way of putting it: “When Peter stepped out of the boat in faith, was it works?” No, it was in response to God. To not respond is to believe in cheap grace, which is really not grace at all, but license in the guise of liberty.
</idle musing>

Spring

I think Spring is here. Or, at least there are signs everywhere that it is close. I went for my first extended bike ride last night; the weather and the light both cooperated. Last week, the weather was right, but the light ended too soon. So, as much as I dislike the time changing, I do like the later evening light.

Anyway, as I was riding, I heard frogs creaking in the marshes. I hadn't heard it before yesterday, but another sign of spring. And, the trees are starting to get a greenish twinge to them as the buds get bigger. Plus, I saw the first flowers on Tuesday evening. There aren't any daffodils yet (a sure sign of spring), but some of the other bulb flowers are poking their heads out. And, tonight I will plant some stuff in the garden, as sure sign of spring!

The summary is...

The basic claim of this book has been that Paul's soteriology is best described as theosis, or transformation into the image of the kenotic, cruciform God revealed in the faithful and loving cross of Christ, and that Spirit-enabled theosis is the substance of both justification and holiness. Justification is participatory and transformative, accomplished by co-crucifixion with Christ and embodied as holiness. Theosis is effected by the mutual inhabitation of those who are justified and the triune God who justifies them. Relating the thesis of this book to the more generally known and accepted notion of cruciformity in Paul, we have said that cruciformity is really theoformity, or theosis. For the sake of clarity and precision, we may wish to use the phrase cruciform theosis as shorthand for Paul's distinctive version of theosis.—Inhabiting the Cruciform God, p. 161

<idle musing>
Now, repeat the 3 times, real fast :) Seriously, though, this is a very good summary of Paul's theology.
</idle musing>

Thought for today

I was reading this morning in Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture and ran across this:
“...during the Enlightenment there was a shift away from the classic Christian paradigm of ‘faith seeking understanding’ to one of ‘faith requiring justification’.”—Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, page 32, footnote 73

<idle musing>
That really struck me. I believe he is correct; we feel the need to defend faith, rather than allowing our faith to lead us into understanding. Sad loss on our part.
</idle musing>

Promised pictures

OK, I've been promising pictures of a few things lately, so here we go...

My $5.00 cheese press (actually, it might be about $8.00). Note that it is all wood, no metal for the salt to corrode.

Fully assembled. Note the black markers to line up which is front. The original design only had two dowels, but that proved too unstable, so I went with four.


The circle of wood is called a follower; it goes between the 2x3 boards and the cheese cloth. All the wood is birch, so that it doesn't add any flavor to the cheese. The mold is cut from a gallon vinegar container.


The two 2x3s act as a plunger, pushing the follower down with all the weight that is stacked on the top board. I usually put a 40 pound bag of water softener salt on top for the weight.


Here's the compost bin; not a whole lot to say about :)


And, with Jim Baad's help last night, carrying them up from the basement, here are the cold frames. They are about 2' by 4' in size. Once it warms up, I will take the lids off.




My hope is to set up a hoop house and garden year round with the double protection of cold frame and hoop house keeping things warm enough to stay above freezing. I'll keep you posted on that...

Ouch!

We just got a shipment in from Israel around lunch time. It seems that every big international shipment ends up with at least one fork from a forklift through the packaging. This shipment was no exception; it had three or four holes, but only one was deadly:



Here's another view:



Sadly, it will end its days in the recycle bin...

A pacifistic Paul?

Paul is frequently portrayed as the paradigm of Christian conversion, both in Christian spirituality and in Western art. He is touted as the one-time persecutor turned proclaimer, which is of course true. Seldom, however, is his turn from violence qua violence (as opposed to his turn from persecuting the early church to promoting the faith) seen as a constitutive part of his conversion and new life, or as paradigmatic for, and therefore constitutive of, Christian conversion and new life generally. If the conversion of Paul grounded in the resurrection of Christ, is paradigmatic, it is paradigmatic in multiple ways, not least of which is his conversion from violence to nonviolence. Put differently, forsaking violence and embracing nonviolence is an essential part of Paul's theosis and of Christian theosis more generally.—Inhabiting the Cruciform God, pp. 158-159

<idle musing>
I like that view! But, then, I am a pacifist; it is nice thinking that Paul was one, too.
</idle musing>

That took way too long!

I made cheddar cheese on Friday night—actually into Saturday morning. I didn't realize it would take as long as it did. I estimated 5 hours, but it was 7 hours! Granted, most of that time was waiting, but you have to be there at the right times. I don't think I'll do that recipe again! I saw one that was supposed to take less time; I'll have to dig it out.

Once the making part was done, it had to press for 12 hours at 40 pounds, and then another 24 hours at 50 pounds. That's why I started it on Friday night. 36 hours of pressing time is hard to time correctly so I am home. But, it came out nicely formed. I made 2 pounds and cut it into four 1/2 pound sections to dry for a few days. After they dry, I will wax them and age them for different lengths of time. I love extra-sharp, so we'll see if I have the patience to wait a year :)

On the cheese-making front, the colby will be ready to try next weekend, but I will be gone, picking up Debbie from her parents. She is staying with her sister for another few days and then going to her parents until the weekend. So, once we get back, we'll try the cheese on Monday. I can't wait to see how it turned out. If it is good, I suspect we will make it more often—definitely more often than cheddar!

Meanwhile, I made a 3-bay compost bin and put it in the backyard. We had an ugly pile there before; this will make things look better. Plus, because it has air holes, the compost should rot faster.

I also made four cold frames this weekend. I hope to take pictures of them tonight and post them tomorrow. I got the windows last summer from work when we were cleaning out the garage. The garage had never been gone through since Eisenbrauns bought the shipping building almost 10 years ago. The windows were from when the building was originally built, about 25+ years ago. They are double paned and weigh a lot. I'll be putting them in the garden tonight; it was raining and cold yesterday when I finished them.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to plant some radishes, spinach, and peas yet this week under the cold frames. That would give us radishes and spinach before tax day, and peas by May 15. I could handle that :)

Divine child abuse?

We have been arguing for a nonviolent God and a nonviolent apostle. However, the description of God's response to human sin in the form of the cross strikes some as violent rather than nonviolent, and that in at least two ways. First, it seems violent to hand one's Son over to death by crucifixion—”divine child abuse” as some have called it. Second, it seems violent to speak of participating in that event, to describe one's life as “co-crucifixion” (especially Gal 2;19).

Although Paul hardly denies the reality of the cross as a human and perhaps even demonic instrument of violent exclusion and elimination (1 Cor 2:8), it is not for him a symbol of divine violence that permits or even encourages violent acts and language...Rather, it is above all the reality and symbol of divine inclusion and love. For that reason it is absolutely crucial for Paul and for us that the cross of Christ is not merely the loving action of God the Father (Rom 5:8) but also the loving action of Christ the Son (2 Cor 5:14; Gal 2:20). Indeed, Paul beautifully ties the two together in Rom 8:31-39. To die with the Son in faith and baptism (Gal 2:15; Rom 6:1-7:6; see chapter two above), and subsequently in a life of ongoing cruciform holiness, is not to actively do something violent, but to do something loving and grace-filled for the benefit of others.—Inhabiting the Cruciform God, p. 145

<idle musing>
I like that answer. I have been accused of doing something violent when I speak of death to self; Gorman's answer is very good—now if I can just remember it next time someone accuses me of violence :)
</idle musing>

Eisenbrauns sale

OK, the other day I mentioned the monthly sale, but not the weekly one. It is set to expire in about 3 days, so you had better hurry!

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

I recently asked our Twitter followers for sale ideas. I
received several interesting ones that you will be seeing
in the future. The winner, though, came from our webmaster.
Here's his blurb:

"While several of us here at Eisenbrauns enjoy the novelty
of walking on water (the ice on Winona Lake is still half a
foot thick) we long for Spring and the chance to get out in
our boats. So, with that in mind, we present 12 titles related
to boats and sailing. There's a broad range here, from discus-
sions of Noah and the great Flood to underwater archaeology
and ship design."

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns
will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at
www.eisenbrauns.com through March 14, 2010.

To go directly to the weekly sale, click on this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWSLIST
============================================================
"'Each Man Cried Out to His God:' The Specialized Religion
of Canaanite and Phoenician Seafarers"
by Aaron J. Brody
Harvard Semitic Monographs - HSM 58
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0788504665
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $20.97

"'Ploes... Sea Routes...' Interconnections in the Mediterranean,
16th-6th Centuries. BC: Proceedings of the International Symposium
held at Rethymnon, Crete, September 29th - October 2nd 2002."
Edited by N.C. Stampolidis and Vassos Karageorghis
University of Cyprus, 2003. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9607143256
List Price: $123.00 Your Price: $98.40

"Black Sea: Past, Present and Future- Proceedings of the
International, Interdisciplinary Conference, Istanbul
(14-16th October 2004)"
Edited by Gulden Erkut and Stephen Mitchell
Monograph 42
British Institute of Archaeology, Ankara, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781898249214
List Price: $60.00 Your Price: $54.00

"From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea: Studies on the History
of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour of A. K. Grayson"
Edited by Grant Frame and Linda S. Wilding
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique
neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 101
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands
Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2004. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9062583121
List Price: $76.00 Your Price: $60.80

"Cyprus, the Sea Peoples and the Eastern Mediterranean:
Regional Perspectives of Continuity and Change"
by Timothy P. Harrison
Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies, 2008. Paper.
English and French.
List Price: $50.00 Your Price: $40.00

"The Sea Peoples in the Bible"
by Othniel Margalith
Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9783447035163
List Price: $80.00 Your Price: $64.00

"Itineraria Phoenicia: Studia Phoenicia 18"
by E. Lipinski
Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta - OLA 127
Peeters Publishers, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9042913444
List Price: $138.00 Your Price: $121.44

"The Philosophy of Shipbuilding: Conceptual Approaches
to the Study of Wooden Ships"
by Frederick M. Hocker and Cheryl A. Ward
Nautical Archaeology Series
Texas A & M University Press, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0585443131
List Price: $75.00 Your Price: $60.00

"Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic:
Sumerian Origins of the Flood Myth"
by Robert M. Best
Enlil Press, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0966784014
List Price: $38.00 Your Price: $7.60

"Out of Noah's Ark: Animals in Ancient Art from
the Leo Mildenberg Collection"
Edited by Patricia Erhart Mottahedeh
Bible Lands Museum, 1997. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 3805323476
List Price: $35.00 Your Price: $28.00

"On the Primaeval Ocean: The Carlsberg Papyri 5"
by Mark Smith
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 26
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 8772896469
List Price: $91.00 Your Price: $72.80

"The Phoenicians in Spain: An Archaeological Review of the
Eighth-Sixth Centuries B.C.E. -- A Collection of Articles
Translated from Spanish"
Translated by Marilyn Bierling
Edited by Seymour Gitin
Eisenbrauns, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575060569
List Price: $42.50 Your Price: $21.25

The cross--or the resurrection

Most importantly, without the resurrection of Christ, the cross of Christ is simply the shameful but appropriate death of a messianic pretender and possible threat to the Roman status quo—not the death of the Son of God or Lord of glory. Indeed, Christ's cross is meaningless for Paul without the resurrection. —Inhabiting the Cruciform God, pp. 139-140

<idle musing>
You can't forget the resurrection! Yes, the death of Jesus without the resurrection is meaningless. Without the resurrection death is still victorious. But, with the resurrection, we can live new lives!
</idle musing>